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| Author(s): |
Felipe Wanderley Amorim
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | Campinas, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia |
| Defense date: | 2012-08-17 |
| Examining board members: |
Marlies Sazima;
Kayna Agostini;
Paulo Eugênio Oliveira;
Santiago Miguel Benitez Vieyra;
Wesley Rodrigues Silva
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| Advisor: | Marlies Sazima |
| Abstract | |
Hawkmoth pollination is probably one of the least studied pollination systems in tropical communities, particularly in the Atlantic Rainforest, one of the most diverse and threatened biomes in the world. In this work we studied the sphingophilous plants and the Sphingidae fauna in an area of Highland AtlanticRainforest (HARF) and analyzed the ecological processes underlying the interactions between plants and hawkmoths. Altogether, 24 species composed the sphingophilous flora recorded to the study site, among which four species had strict adaptations related to hawkmoth pollination. The hawkmoth fauna was composed of 50 species with great predominance of short-tongued moths. Hawkmoths and plants showed a significant morphological match in the distribution of floral tubes and proboscises lengths, but unlike the general pattern obtained for other areas in the Neotropical region, we did not record a strict phenological match between hawkmoths and plants in the Atlantic Rainforest. The seasonal occurrence of long-tongued moths in the study site is related mainly to the income of migrating species from adjacent ecosystems to the HARF. Pollinator-limitation was common in the most specialized sphingophilous plants limiting fruit-set. Pollinator-mediated selection processes in highly specialized species were also impaired. However, local processes of pollinator-mediated selection may operate structuring the morphological match between hawkmoths and plants in spite of being variable in time and space, as suggested by the results. Despite the absence of a strict phenological match between hawkmoths and plants in the Atlantic Rainforest, the general pattern recorded to other analyzed biomes suggests a concurrence of long-tongued hawkmoths and long-tubed flowers through the phenological time. Since this group of plants offers greater amounts of nectar in a "private niche" where only long-tongued hawkmoths can have access, such phenological match could be viewed as a strategy to reduce competition for floral resources between long- and short-tongued moths in the Sphingidae community (AU) | |